Weekend coming up and I need to get my ballot mailed in even though I’m registered to vote in what they call a ‘safe’ Democratic district but what that means is the Democratic congresswoman is so complacent there wasn’t even a progressive challenger, and she occasionally makes liberal noises but in fact she’s a bit of a crook, I’ll probably vote Green, and I’ll probably vote for Kevin deLeon for Senate, not because I think he’ll be much different from Dianne Feinstein, but just because he’s not Dianne Feinstein, and I’m tired of her ugly mug.
We all talk about getting money out of politics, and how there must be a better way to elect a president, but it’s tricky. As Churchill said: “Democracy is absolutely the worst method of governance ever invented – except for all the others.” In the end, it’s got to come down to a vote of the people, no matter how ill-informed, poorly educated, short sighted and pig headed those people might be.
But there is a way to cut through the lies and the bullshit and make sure the people have a better idea who they’re voting for. This is it:
We ban all political advertising, TV, print, internet, yard signs, all of it. Of course, some would argue that that’s a limitation on free speech, but it’s really not. It’s just a limitation on the medium of free speech. And the medium is the message.
All of this is replaced with an American Idol type elimination series. In the first few rounds, you’d have your Vernon Supremes and everybody else, and everybody would get the same debate time. Evens the playing field. Maybe sometimes they’d have to perform ‘tasks’ or go through lightning round quizzes on the constitution, and there would be crisis role play situations, like a terrorist attack or a natural disaster they’d have to deal with, and of course lots of different debates, with different formats. It would have to be a multi-round thing, so by the time somebody gets to the final round, there are lots of people who like them, everybody knows their positions, and their background, and everything there is to know about their life, because fuck these people and their secrecy.
If we can’t know the truth about them, they don’t need to be in a position of leadership.
